The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced a broad reorganization as part of the Trump administration’s drive to cut costs that some activists worry will harm the agency’s independent scientific research.

Administrator Lee Zeldin announced changes that included creating a new unit within his office “to align research and put science at the forefront of the agency’s rulemakings.” He said the overall reorganization would boost efficiency and save at least $300 million annually, although he didn’t detail how the money would be saved.

Although Zeldin didn’t mention it by name, some scientists and activists saw it as an attack on EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The agency said it would shift “its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices” that focus on major issues such as air and water.

Separately Friday, President Donald Trump unveiled a proposed budget to cut that office’s funding by $235 million.

Trump’s budget said the cut would put “an end to unrestrained research grants, radical environmental justice work, woke climate research, and skewed, overly-precautionary modeling that influences regulations — none of which are authorized by law.”

Agency researchers have improved air pollution monitoring, found high levels of PFAS in drinking water sources, provided flood prevention resources and made more information available on chemical safety.

EPA’s possible plans to lay off as many as 1,155 staffers in the office — as much as three-fourths of its workers — became public in March. Those cuts are part of a broader push by Zeldin to cut EPA’s budget by about two-thirds.

The Office of Research and Development has 10 facilities across the country. It was designed to be insulated from politics so it can produce essential science.

Camden Weber, climate and energy policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “is a textbook move from the authoritarian playbook.”